assessment of the immune system activity in iranian patients with major depression disorder (mdd)

background: major depression disorder (mdd) is a common disorder with preva-lence of 15% among men and up to 25% among women. in recent years the association of immune system alterations and mdd has been investigated. assessments of immu-nologic and inflammatory responses in these patients enhance our knowledge of the eti-ology and pathogenesis of this disease. objective: to investigate the changes in immu-noglobulin and cytokine serum levels and lymphocyte subsets in patients with mdd. methods: we studied 37 adult patients with mdd, diagnosed based on dsm-iv diag-nostic criteria, and 15 healthy controls matched with the patients. plasma concentration of interleukin-4 (il-4), il-10, tnf α, and ifn γ were measured by elisa and serum immunoglobulins by srid. total number of nk cells (cd16 and cd56), b cells (cd19), and t cells (cd8, cd4, and cd3) were determined by flow cytometry. results: we found no significant differences in plasma concentration of il-4, il-10, tnf-α, ifn-γ, and immunoglobulins as well as total number of nk cells, b cells, and t cells between major depressed patients and healthy control subjects. conclusion: we conclude that in our patients, there were no significant differences in immune system ac-tivity between mdd patients and controls.